Benjamin Pimentel. How My Sons Lost Their Tagalog. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2013. 117 pages.

• Main Author: Tinio, Maria Teresa
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2014
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol4/iss2/16; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/paha/article/1132/viewcontent/PAHA_204.2_2016_20Book_20reviews_20__20Tinio.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Excerpt: Amiability, friendliness, and even ease permeate How My Sons Lost Their Tagalog, a book of non-fiction by Filipino-American journalist Benjamin Pimentel. The language of the pieces, both in Filipino and English, is accessible and flows easily. The stories told are familiar and familial: stories about parenting, memories of Christmas in the Philippines. The opinions expressed, even those on politics and political figures, are sensible and somewhat progressive. Reading the pieces is like having a conversation over coffee with an intelligent, level-headed, thoughtful friend—if one happens to be an upper middle-class Filipino who went to college at the University of the Philippines (UP) or the Ateneo de Manila in the eighties or who is related to someone with a similar upbringing.